Brain Rush: How to Invest and Compete in the Real World of Generative AI

After decades of false starts, artificial intelligence (AI) is entering the mainstream of society. That is largely due to the rapid adoption of ChatGPT, a service that responds to almost any natural language question with cogent paragraphs. ChatGPT is the leading example of generative AI -- technology that creates original text, images, video and computer code based on uncovering patterns in training data.

The book will explain how generative AI works and how much economic value it could create and will map out the industry value network. For each value network stage, the book will define the industry, estimate its size, growth rate, and profit potential, identify the most successful participants, and explain how they have achieved their success and where they will compete in the future. The book will conclude with a section on what investors and business leaders should do to make an informed decision on where to place their bets.

What You Will Learn

Insights on how best to assemble the resources – whether by hiring a consultant or bringing on board a generative AI expert -- to build, train, and operate company specific generative AI applications

How management can brainstorm, evaluate and execute the right opportunities

Concepts and processes to enable investors to place bets with the highest risk-adjusted returns

Who This Book is For

Business and enterprises seeking to get value from generative AI, current or potential suppliers of technology and services to companies that build generative AI, and venture capitalists and public equity investors seeking to make profitable bets on generative AI companies

Peter S. Cohan is an Associate Professor of Management Practice at Babson College. He teaches strategy, leadership and entrepreneurship to students in its undergraduate, Master of Science in Entrepreneurial Leadership, Master of Science in Advanced Entrepreneurial Leadership, MBA, and Executive Education programs. He is coordinator of Babson’s required undergraduate strategy course and the creator and teacher of advanced strategy courses for undergraduate and MSEL students. Cohan is the founding principal of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He has completed over 150 growth-strategy consulting projects for global technology companies and invested in seven startups -- three of which were sold for about $2 billion and one of which went public in 2021 at an $18 billion valuation. He has written 16 books including Net Profit: How to Invest and Compete in the Wild World of Internet Business. Since 2011 he has been a contributor to Forbes and Inc. He is a frequent media commentator who has appeared on ABC's Good Morning America, Bloomberg, CNN, CNBC, Fox Business News, American Public Media's MarketPlace, WBUR, WGBH, New England Cable News and the Boston ABC, NBC, and CBS affiliates. He has been quoted in the Associated Press, the Christian Science Monitor, the London Evening Standard, the Times of London, the New York Times, Nikkei, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Portugal's Expresso, the Economist, Time, BusinessWeek, and Fortune. He also appeared in the 2016 documentary film, We the People: the Market Basket Effect. Prior to starting his firm, he worked as a case team leader for Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter's consulting firm. He has taught at MIT, Stanford, Columbia, Tel Aviv University, New York University, Bentley University, The Vienna University of Technology, School of Management Fribourg, Barcelona's EADA, Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, the University of Coimbra, the University of Chile, the University of Hong Kong and Tecnologico de Monterrey. RETHINK Retail chose him as a Top 100 Retail Influencer of 2021, 2022, and 2023. He earned an MBA from Wharton, did graduate work in computer science at MIT, and holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Swarthmore College.